How To Make a Matcha Latte
I love matcha AND I DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS IT. I love my coffee too, but found a few years ago that coffee exacerbated my autoimmune symptoms and caused me to massively crash every afternoon. You know that exhausted 3pm, fiending for Lindt chocolate balls and a nap on your keyboard feeling?
I love matcha AND I DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS IT. I love my coffee too, but found a few years ago that coffee exacerbated my autoimmune symptoms and caused me to massively crash every afternoon. You know that exhausted 3pm, fiending for Lindt chocolate balls and a nap on your keyboard feeling?
Coffee is wonderful and I will never take it away from you! I swear! But for those with autoimmune disease, or adrenal or thyroid issues it can be really taxing on your system because lots of caffeine causes a surge of the stress hormone cortisol.
Matcha contains caffeine but it's a much gentler stimulant that provides more even energy throughout the day.
Matcha is a potent antioxidant. On the ORAC scale (oxygen radical absorbance capacity – a measure of the antioxidant capacity of food), it surpasses all other antioxidant rich foods including blueberries, pomegranates, and dark chocolate.
SO if you're feeling like coffee might be doing bad things for you and you're experiencing afternoon crashes, try swapping it out for matcha a few days a week and see how it makes you feel. It's always a constant experiment to see how to best fuel these bodies of ours!
My favorite brand to use is Matchaful because it's organic and tastes amazing. Use the code 'Livewell' when you check out to get 15% of your matcha order, woohoo!
Let me know if you end up making matcha, I want to see your creations!
And as a little gift, click the button below to download a few of my favorite, easy recipes to get ya cookin'!
With Love,
Christina Tidwell, MN, RN, CHC
Greens & Avocado Smoothie
So I just got back from spending two glorious weeks traveling around the Philippines and the first thing I wanted (besides a shower) was this green smoothie. I dove right in and ate amazing Filipino food while I was there (think garlic fried rice, chicken adobo, lumpia, fresh grilled fish). But eating well while traveling and being in transit is tough! So after my fifth airplane meal and bag of mystery Filipino shrimp chips, all I wanted was something green and refreshing.
So I just got back from spending two glorious weeks traveling around the Philippines and the first thing I wanted (besides a shower) was this green smoothie. I dove right in and ate amazing Filipino food while I was there (think garlic fried rice, chicken adobo, lumpia, fresh grilled fish). But eating well while traveling and being in transit is tough! So after my fifth airplane meal and bag of mystery Filipino shrimp chips, all I wanted was something green and refreshing.
So here it is in case you need something like this in your life too!
Greens & Avocado Smoothie
Ingredients
1 handful spinach
1/2 avocado
Generous squeeze of lemon juice
1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled
1/2 cup apple juice (I like this brand)
Ice cubes and water
Directions
Add all ingredients together and blend. Add in ice and water to desired consistency. Top with granola or nuts for breakfast!
Want some more fresh food inspiration? Click the button below to get my free 5-Day Clean Eating Meal Plan that takes all the guess work out of what to eat for the week.
You'll get recipes, a shopping list and daily instructions for what to make. TOO EASY! I really hope you enjoy xx
With Love,
Christina Tidwell, MN, RN, CHC
Why Diets Suck
Ok, come clean. What wierdo, fad diets have you tried in the name of weight loss... The Pineapple Diet? The Bacon Diet? The Baby Food Diet? The Cigarette Diet? The Clay Diet (it’s a thing, Google it) The Air Diet? I’ve heard a lot, and I’ve tried a lot. And I’m here to tell you once and for all that diets. Don’t. Work. And here is why.
Ok, come clean. What wierdo, fad diets have you tried in the name of weight loss... The Pineapple Diet? The Bacon Diet? The Baby Food Diet? The Cigarette Diet? The Clay Diet (it’s a thing, Google it) The Air Diet? I’ve heard a lot, and I’ve tried a lot. And I’m here to tell you once and for all that diets. Don’t. Work. And here is why.
Maybe in the past you’ve summoned up the willpower to start a diet where you restrict your calories for a period of time. You are miserable throughout the day trying to deny primal signs of hunger as you munch on your carrot sticks. But you do it and you notice the weight dropping off. Success! This lasts for a period of time and you feel pretty good. You keep the weight off as long as you are restricting your calories, but as you become a bit more lax and the novelty wears off, somehow that weight begins to slowly creep back up again. Does this sound familiar? It’s a cycle of weight loss and gain that we refer to as “yo-yo” dieting and it’s a trap SO many people fall into.
Research shows us that in up to 80% of cases where weight loss was initially successful when engaged in a calorie restricted diet, reduced weight is not maintained and is actually followed by recurrent weight gain [1]
Why does this happen? And what can we do to break the cycle?
Often times we end up blaming ourselves for not being able to stick to these rigid diets. We think we are weak or worthless, and we end up with a huge amount of guilt. But friends, I’m here to tell you that it’s not your fault. It’s not. Your. Fault. It’s the way we have been taught to view food, calories and dieting and it’s time to throw it all away for something better: food freedom.
When embarking on calorie counting diets we often times focus on the quantity rather than the quality of the food we put into our bodies. We expect ourselves to be mathematical geniuses to get the exact ratio for weight loss correct. Instead of focusing on the quantity (read: calories) in the food we consume we should aim to focus on the quality.
Food is not just calories going in us, but rather it’s information. Food gets broken down and absorbed into our bloodstream and affects every cell in our body. By focusing on healthy, nutrient-dense foods we nourish our bodies and give them what they need to come back into balance. Foods like vegetables, fruits, protein, good fats, and whole grains are essential to every process in our body and to keep it functioning optimally for prevention of disease and maintenance of ideal body weight.
Recent research has shed new light onto the importance that the microbiome (bacteria living in our gut) plays in the role of weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight [2]. By balancing the good and bad bacteria in the gut we optimize the entire digestive process and our body is able to process and store food more effectively. The first step in maximizing our gut health is to move away from processed foods and move towards real, whole foods. Get some food inspiration here >>
If you want to learn more about how to heal your gut and never, ever, ever diet again I’d love to start you on your journey away from stupid diets towards FOOD FREEDOM!
Click the button below to book a free 30-minute Discovery Session with me so you can do this once and for all. I've got your back!
With Love,
Christina Tidwell, MN, RN, CHC
[1] Anastasiou, C., Karfopoulou, E. & Yannakoulia, M. (2015). Weight regaining: from statistics and behaviors to physiology and metabolism. Metabolism 64, 1395-1407.
[2] Thaiss, C et al. (2016). Persistent microbiome alterations modulate the rate of post-dieting weight regain. Nature 540, 544-551.
Eat Local with Steel Wheel Farm
At the grocery store you can find fruits and veggies from literally all over the globe that have somehow made it to your produce section. It seems great, that we can have all the variety we want at anytime during the year, right? But sourcing produce from all over does have it's drawbacks and eating fruits and veggies grown locally has loads of benefits.
© 2017 Steel Wheel Farm
At the grocery store you can find fruits and veggies from literally all over the globe that have somehow made it to your produce section. It seems great, that we can have all the variety we want at anytime during the year, right? But sourcing produce from all over does have its drawbacks, and eating fruits and veggies grown locally has loads of benefits.
Local foods are fresher and taste better. Fruits and vegetables begin to lose nutrients as soon as they are picked, so buying local produce cuts down travel time. Not only will the food taste better, but less travel time means less packaging, shipping and transportation and is much gentler on the environment. Buying local makes us eat with the seasons meaning we eat only what is naturally growing at that time. Eating seasonally results in the most delicious and nutrient-dense produce so you get way more bang for your buck!
One awesome way to eat locally is to get involved in a CSA which stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Community Supported Agriculture is a program that allows people to purchase local, seasonal food straight from the farmer.
I get my fruits and veggies from an amazing CSA in Fall City, WA called Steel Wheel Farm and the farmers Kim and Ryan are here to tell you more about it. I seriously look forward to my veggie box every week and get so excited to see what beauties these guys included. It's expanded my veggie horizons in a way I never thought possible!
© 2017 Steel Wheel Farm
Hello! We are Steel Wheel Farm, a husband and wife farming duo who are hard at work cultivating the flood plain in Fall City, WA.
Although we each have different paths which propelled us into the agriculture landscape, our love of fragrant, beautiful, nutrient-dense food is identical. For Ryan, farming has been as much of a love story as it has been career path. From the moment he met his first Tractor, “Olive,” he was drawn to the soil and all that he can grow from it. For Kim, a picky eater most of her life, farming was revolutionary. Instead of hiding veggies under napkins, she now craves the first zucchini and roasting mounds of Brussel sprouts.
More than anything we both believe that quality food begins at the source—with the farmer. That is why it is our mission to produce the highest-quality and environmentally-friendly food we can muster, so that others who don’t farm can indulge, enjoy and appreciate the land and its bounty as much as we do.
© 2017 Steel Wheel Farm
Our favorite crop last season: Black Krim Heirloom Tomatoes
Start spring veggie/CSA season off with this recipe: Ginger Sesame Choi
Use up the last of your winter root crops with this recipe: Roasted Cardamom Roots
Looking forward to: Magic Garlic (a new crop for this year!) and yellow watermelons
Why join a CSA?
All of our members enjoy:
1. 20+ weeks of healthy, local, fresh, seasonal produce
2. Hand-grown, chemical-free food
3. Supporting the local economy and hard-working farmers
4. Farm updates, newsletters and recipes
5. Weekly , bi-weekly deliveries
6. Cooking and eating your favorite produce, as well as exploring new foods
7. Knowing where your food comes from and the farmers!
Sign up for our 2017 CSA: Here! Summer session begins Tue, June 6
© 2017 Steel Wheel Farm